SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER 167 



PISOBIA ACUMINATA (Horsfield) 



SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER 

 HABITS 



This is a bird which few of us have been privileged to see. From 

 its summer home in northeastern Siberia it migrates south to Japan, 

 the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and New Zealand. On the fall 

 migration it visits the coast of northwestern Alaska frequently, per- 

 haps regularly, and often commonly. It occurs regularly, sometimes 

 abundantly, on the Pribilof Islands in the fall. In southern Alaska 

 and farther south it occurs only as a rare straggler. A. W. Anthony 

 (1922) took a young male near San Diego, California, on September 

 16, 1921. 



Some European writers have called it the Siberian pectoral sand- 

 piper, which its resemblance to our common bird of that name seems 

 to warrant. It is so much like our pectoral sandpiper in appearance, 

 behavior, and haunts, that it has probably often been overlooked; 

 it may therefore occur on our northwestern coast much oftener than 

 we suspect. 



Nesting. — The sharp-tailed sandpiper is supposed to breed in Mon- 

 golia and eastern Siberia ; it has been seen and collected on its breed- 

 ing grounds in northeastern Siberia, Cape Wankarem, the Chuckchi 

 Peninsula, and the Kolyma Delta, but apparently its nest has never 

 been found and its eggs are entirely unknown. 



Plumages. — The downy young is entirely unknown. This sand- 

 piper is handsomely and richly colored in any plumage, but the rich 

 buff and bright browns of the juvenal plumage arc particularly 

 noticeable. The body plumage is molted in the fall, the wings and 

 tail in late winter, and the body plumage is partially molted again 

 in the spring. The plumages are well described in the manuals. 



Food. — Preble and McAtee (1923) report on the food of this spe- 

 cies, as follows : 



Eight well-filled and one nearly empty stomach of the sharp-tailed sandpiper 

 are available to illustrate the food habits. This number is too small to furnish 

 reliable results, and too great dependence must not be placed in data as to the 

 relative ranks of food items as here stated. The percentages found for the 

 limited material, then, are flies (Diptera), 39.1 per cent; crustaceans, 18.1 per 

 cent ; mollusks, 14.2 per cent ; caddisflies, 11.8 per cent ; beetles, 8.8 per cent ; 

 Hymenoptera, 1.8 per cent ; and vegetable matter, 3.9 per cent. Mr. Hanna 

 notes that flocks of this species frequent the seal-killing fields, feeding oh fly 

 maggots, a statement receiving confirmation from stomach analysis. 



Behavior. — Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) tells us a little about the 

 habits of this rare species, as follows : 



They were nearly always associated with maculata, whose habits they shared 

 to a great extent. When congregated about their feeding places they united 

 into flocks of from ten into fifty, but single birds were frequently flushed from 



